Movie Review: Vikingdom

Vikingdom

Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Epic Pictures Releasing, KRU Studios, Malaysia, USA, 2013.

King of Jomsberg, Eirick (Dominic Purcell) is mortally wounded, he leaves the kingdom to his brother Beothric (Tim P. Doughty) and dies. During Blood Eclipse a gate opens between Valhalla, Midgard and Helheim (or Heaven, Earth and Hell).

Eirick

Thor

Christianity is advancing but God of Thunder Thor (Conan Stevens) decides to return Viking gods to power. Thor needs three keys to open the gates. Frey (Jesse Moss) and Freya (Tegan Moss) ressurrect Eirick, and Eirick spends time in the wilderness. Eirick is the personal favourite of Freya, If You Know What I Mean.

Freya

Frey tells that Thor is about to destroy the world. As an undead warrior Eirick can travel betweeno Midgard and Helheim. Eirick must get a horn from Helheim, so that he can use its the power to destroy Thor's human body and send him back to Valhalla.

Sven

Yang

Eirick and his pal Sven (Craig Fairbrass) start their voyage to Osberg to meet Alcuin the Wizard (Patrick Murray). They free an Asian slave Yang (Jon Foo) who knows kung fu. They arrive late, as Alcuin is already kidnapped by Geats (a.k.a Goths). King Karl Redbeard (Geoffrey Giuliano) offers the heroes mead and food. Eirick recruits men for the attack against Goths. The new members of the group are:

Olaf (Bart Van Der Molen) and Gregor (unknown actor!) - Sons of Karl

Yamar (Torstein Olaussen) - The Hunter

Henrik (Ignas Versinskas) - The Lad

Warrick (Valentine Cawley) - The Old Bugger

Bernard (Bruce Blain) - The Killer of Women and Children

Brynna the Fair (Natassia Malthe) - Reader of Wind.

Karl Redbeard knows how to throw a party

Brynna

In Gotland the heroes fight some Goths and free Alcuin. Next Eirick must go to Hell to get the Horn. There he meets undead warriors and golden girls. Also hell hound Garm does not let the living leave Helheim. After many twists, betrayals and battles Eirick and Thor wrestle with heavy metal playing in the background.

A sailing we will go

Vikings in Gotland

Alcuin

This is a mythical adventure in the footsteps of "Wrath of the Titans" with aesthetics of  "300." Some effects look cheap, but the budget was only a fraction of similar Hollywood epics. The action is okay and the story has some interesting turns, but the story could use a tighter pace as as the movie is long for an action movie (1 h 50 min). Still the background of the crew members are left vague and the characters are undeveloped. Conan Stevens is hulky Thor, but does not really get many opportunities to swing his mighty (plastic) hammer. Dominic Purcell's acting is quite wooden, but luckily the supporting characters bring some lighter moments.

What is again hardest to accept is the Hollywood-style butchering of the old myths and making Thor the bad guy. In the original myths Thor was the protector of mankind who fought against evil giants. In this movie Thor aims to destroy Christianity and his actions would free the giants to cause chaos on the Earth. That would be more like behaviour of Loki the God of Mischief. Given the richness of the ancient poems, it would not be impossible to do a film that would do justice to the original texts.

Rating: Average

Starring: Dominic Purcell, Natassia Malthe, Craig Fairbrass, Jon Foo, Conan Stevens, Patrick Murray, John Reynolds, Tim P. Doughty, Bruce Blain, Ray Kril, Aida Rakhimora, Jesse Moss, Tegan Moss, Trevor Coppola, Mahyar Baghdadi Mahmoud, Ignas Versinskas, Geoffrey Giuliano (as Jeffrey Joseph Juliana), Bart Van Der Molen, Alle Jelle de Boer, Jonathan Samson, Valentine Cawley (as Tommy James Cawley), Judd Wild, Torstein Olaussen, Michael Hagerty-Roach, Alexander William Johnson, Ron Smoorenburg, Julian Mokhtar, Byron Gibson, Simon James Thomas, Payam Gouya Hossein, Roger Anthony Childs, Peter Rnic, Creighton Mark Johnson, Anteo Quintavalle, Besnik Kallaba, Matthew Knowles, Damian Mavis

Director: Yusry Abd Halim (as Yusry Kru)

Movie Review: Jesse and Lester, Two Brothers in a Place Called Trinity

Jesse and Lester, Two Brothers in a Place Called Trinity (Jesse & Lester - Due fratelli in un posto chiamato Trinità) a.k.a A Place Called Trinity a.k.a Jesse and Lester a.k.a Two Brothers in Trinity a.k.a Trinity 

H.P. International, Italy, 1974.

This movie can be found in Ten Thousand Ways to Die The Spaghetti Western Collection 12 Movie Pack by Mill Creek Entertainment. 

Mormon Lester O'Hara (Donald O'Brien) is searching for Jesse Smith (Richard Harrison). Jesse is a notorious womanizer and gunslinger. Peaceful and righteous Lester is Jesse's half-brother and his complete opposite. Lester chastises Jesse for sinful life. Their uncle Thomas died and left them some land in Trinity. 

Lester

Jesse

When they travel to Trinity, they find a deserted town. Everyone has gone to find gold in California. There is also gold in Trinity. There are already someone mining gold in Jesse's and Lester's land. Three men use slave labour. The brothers have to beat them up to get their property. 

There is not much gold left in the mine. Jesse wants to use his money to open a brothel. Lester wants to build a church with the money. Bandits Blondie (Federico Boido) and Poker (Gino Marturano) rob the gold shipment. 

After losing their money, Lester arranges a boxing match to Jesse. Jesse has to fight a big brute Grizzly Joe to win some money. They do some odd jobs but finally Jesse decides to get the money back from Poker. After that Lester returns home and Jesse wants to start a brothel together with Elena Von Schaffer (Anna Zinnemann). However Lester still uses his tricks to convert Jesse. Meanwhile Lester is robbed again. Lester is wounded, but a weird doctor heals him. 

Grizzly Joe

Elena Von Schaffer

Jesse and his girls

Trying to be a light comedy Western, the movie fails to be as funny as it should. There is not much real plot, and the adventures of the brothers gets tiresome after a while. Quirky supporting characters bring some entertainment, but not enough. 

This version is presented in letterbox format but the image quality is poor and audio also. Looks like a worn out VHS copy. 

Rating: Bad

Starring: Richard Harrison, Donald O'Brien, Gino Marturano, Anna Zinnemann, George Wang, Federico Boido (as Rick Boyd), Aldo Cecconi, Artemio Antonini, Fortunato Arena, Gianfranco Barra, John Bartha, Alba Bonfatti, Michele Branca, Calogero Caruana, Fernando Cerulli, John P. Dulaney, Rodolfo Licari, Daniela Meroni, Emilio Messina, Osiride Pevarello, Ada Pometti, Luciano Rossi, Claudio Ruffini, Galliano Sbarra, Goffredo Unger, Salvatore Baccaro, Elio Angelucci, Franca Hass 

Directors: Renzo Genta (as James London) and Richard Harrison

Movie Review: His Name Was King

His Name Was King (Lo chiamavano King) a.k.a Bullet King 

Foro Film, Italy, 1971. 

This movie can be found in Ten Thousand Ways to Die The Spaghetti Western Collection 12 Movie Pack by Mill Creek Entertainment. 

Benson Brothers, a nasty gun smugglers kill a group of soldiers with Gatling guns near border of Mexico. Ben Benson (Goffredo Unger) is their leader. Bounty hunter John 'King' Marley (Richard Harrison, perhaps best known for low-budget Ninja films) is after the Benson gang. King is friend of Sheriff Brian Foster (Klaus Kinski). 

John 'King' Marley

Ben Benson and one of his brothers (Lorenzo Fineschi)

Sheriff Brian Foster

A shady character is the brains behind the gun smuggling operation. The Bensons kill King's brother and rape his sister-in-law Carol (Anne Puskin). King seeks revenge and leaves Foster to take care of Carol. Government agent Mr. Collins (Luciano Pigozzi) investigates the murder of the soldiers. He thinks that King is involved in gun smuggling. King finds the weapon cache of Mexican bandits but bandit leader Mestas (Marco Zuanelli) captures him. King escapes but to clear his name and catch the real gun smuggler boss.

King's brother George and Carol

Mr. Collins

Mestas

Again Luis Bacalov composed a catchy theme song. The song was also used in Tarantino's "Django Unchained" and video game "Red Dead Revolver." However the title song is about the only memorable thing. The story is quite formulaic revenge tale, but action is okay. Klaus Kinski is great with his unpredictable mannerisms but looks very pale for a Western character. 

Mill Creek version runs 77 minutes and the sound effects are slightly out of sync. 

Theme song sung Ann Collin (NOT by Edda Dell'Orso):

Rating: Average

Starring: Richard Harrison, Klaus Kinski, Anne Puskin, Goffredo Unger (as John Silver), Marco Zuanelli, Vassili Karis, Lorenzo Fineschi, Sergio Smacchi, Luciano Pigozzi, Federico Boido (as Rick Boyd), John Bartha, Tom Felleghy, Paolo Magalotti, Osiride Pevarello, Claudio Ruffini, Ada Pometti, Giorgio Dolfin, Giuseppe Monteverdi, Lucio Zarini, Nestore Cavaricci, Antonio Basile, Oscar Giustini, Salvatore Billa, Renzo Pevarello

Director: Giancarlo Romitelli (as Don Reynolds)